LJWorld.com

"Lattw Niwamh moved smoothly and confidently to the front of the packed auditorium. The poetess had given readings of her poetry so many times previously that it caused as much excitement as her morning cup of caffeine free tea. She didn't begin to realize until hours later, having removed her dramatic bright red lipstick, sheer foundation and deep magenta eye liner with matching mascara, as she climbed into bed that evening, that the poetry she had read that day was not her own.

At the exact same instant, another poet, Lyiem Kensocdin, crossed and uncrossed his legs impatiently. He was old fashioned. He was as computer savvy as any of the upcoming poets of the day, but he preferred to sit with his bottle of scotch on the balcony overlooking the courtyard where women and girls in multicolored skirts and peasant tops sashayed far below. Sometimes he could catch the faint odor of their perfumes as they mingled together and made their way to where he sat.

He felt frustrated; he'd been trying to write a poem that he couldn't seem to push out of his mind all day. It wasn't until he closed his eyes for a brief moment that it became clear what he was going to write. He was delighted with the final product - it had flowed out of him as a vessel; the way poetry is supposed to come. It was good, really good and he was excited to share it with his mistress of the past six months - Lyiem went through women like most men consume wine or cigars.

He rang Lattw on his iPhone. No sooner did he begin to recite his poem when she joined in, completing word for word everything he had just written.

What they didn't know, but were about to find out, was that every poet in the world had just written the same poem. There would be many more to come, but where were they coming from. Were they a message from God delivered through the poet to the masses in order to save humanity, or were they something more sinister? Perhaps, they were simply another sign of the poet - that madman."

The previous paragraphs are from my science fiction piece, "The Poet - That Madman"

Rules for the contest:

Submit your original science fiction short by August 1st to ronda@sunflower.com (or via ljworld at random)

Your submission must not be longer than 999 words, but it can be shorter.

There will be a panel of five judges from varied backgrounds. Please submit one story only.

Prizes include gift certificate to Borders (supplied by our Fiction 500 winner Roe), and a $50.00 gift certificate to your favorite restaurant.

Top winning stories, along with names of the author, will be published online during the month of September.

Have fun - make it 'unreal'!

Can you do it in 500? Some people could never do it, regardless of how many they're given. Michael Goodwin, author of The Badass Geek, thinks you can and I'm willing to give you a chance.

What are we talking about? Goodwin says it best,

“Fiction 500 is an on-going short fiction project, created in 2008. The project is based upon a simple idea: write a fictional story using no more 500 words…Telling a story in just 500 words forces the writer to get to the point and decide what the most important things to say are, and what parts of the story can be left up to the reader to come up with on their own.”

(read more about Goodwin's blog idea and post your own short story on his site at: http://fiction500.blogspot.com/

While I'm hoping Michael shows up to tell us how he came up with his terrific creative idea, you better start composing your 500 word short story.

Yeah, we're having a contest! The three judges are as follows:

Tena Santaularia - Special Event Decorator and Balloon Artist (see: www.balloonarts.biz)

Lori Schutter - Gift Processing Associate at KU Endowment Association

RoeDapple - famous blogger and generally nice person; although he is notorious!

Please mail your 500 word short story to me: ronda@sunflower.com no later than February 16th (you've got one week). You may each submit up to two stories. I will then remove your name and assign a number to protect your identity before forwarding them along to our three judges. The winner will have their story placed in my online blog, along with a brief interview about them and their process, on February 23rd.

Have fun, keep them 'relatively' clean, and feel free to ask questions as you go. (what the judges don't know, is if they are able to pick which story is mine from the group they will also win a prize!) Stories will be judged on concise and precise writing, word count (exactly 500 words), creativity and compelling concept.

Coming in March: Memoir Madness - for those of us who don't give a hoop about basketball!

The Fox channel had its debut showing of "The Moment of Truth" Weds. evening following American Idol.

The show works something like this: pick a contestant and ask them fifty personal questions behind the scenes to get to know them and their vices and flaws.

Next, hook them up to a lie detector test in front of an audience, their spouse, their friends, and even their employer. Then comes the fun part as the contestant is asked the first six questions, which answered truthfully puts 10,000 dollars in their pocket.

It isn't as easy as it sounds, however, because some of the questions are down right demented! Some random questions from last night's show were

:"Are you addicted to gambling?"

"Are you currently a member of the hair club for men?"

"As a personal trainer, have you touched a female client more than was required of you?"

"Have you used the internet to flirt with other women?"

"Have you stolen a peek at another man's privates during a shower?"

"Have you had a sexual fantasy during mass?"

"Have you gone through a co-workers belongings without their knowledge?"

"Have you delayed having children because you don't think your spouse is your lifelong partner?"

The friends/spouse/employers have one out - they can push a large button that is centered between them (one time only) if they do not want to hear the person answer the question that was asked. The problem with that is it will be replaced with another question and the other question just might be worse then the first.

After the initial six questions, that can earn the contestant 10,000 if answered correctly, the next five questions, if answered truthfully, can get the contestant up to the 25,000 dollar mark. The higher you go, the harder and more revealing the question. Answer all 21 questions truthfully and you have $500,000 in your pocket. You may not have a job to go back to, your wife, husband, and friends have probably abandoned you, but you decide how important money really is in your life.

This show is destined to be a hit - audiences love to see people squirm in the hot seat, see their lives (and their friends and families lives) destroyed right in front of them - and the contestant most probably will end up leaving with nothing.

This reminded me of the games we played as teenagers: truth or dare and twenty questions.

Would you risk it all and tell the truth for $500,000?